My friend Rigeck Rogers is the sole member of this coldwave project based in France. If you like early New Order, Joy Division, Cure, then this music will be right up your alley. A lot of old school drum machines, synths, and real bass are used to create fragile, cold, atmospheric music that wraps around you like a grey fog in October. Highly recommended!

John Foxx has teamed up with various musicians from Louis Gordon to Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie, and Steve Jansen (formerly of Japan),
and is still making some of the best electronic pop music the world has to offer. One of the very few artists that continue to
inspire me these days.

I first heard Rational Youth on CFNY radio out of Toronto, the definitive New Wave radio station in Canada back in the early 80's. The song was Saturdays in Silesia. Unfortunately the album was never available in my local record store in Northern Ontario though, so it wasn't until the late 90's that I actually rediscovered their first album "Cold War/Night Life". Rational Youth were Canada's first truly synth-pop band. Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn initially created their songs using vintage analog synths and drum machines (Moog Source, System-100, System-700, SH-5, Logan String Melody, TR-808, etc.) with a CV/GATE sequencer, the MC-4 MicroComposer. Eventually Bill left the band, and it began veering in a more modern, less electronic direction with the album "Heredity". Rational Youth reformed in 1999 and released a new album, To The Goddess Electricity. This album was a bit more modern sounding, but the song-writing was still stellar all the same. In 2013 they announced the re-release of "To The Goddess Electricity" (on colored vinyl) as well as some unreleased live cassettes, CD box set, and a tour of Canada, Sweden, Norway, and Germany in 2014. I SATELLITE will be opening for them in Oslo (May 1), Gothenburg (May 2), and Stockholm (May 3).

This band originated in France but a couple members were from
Italy. Somehow their work passed me by in the 70's and 80's until
I discovered them by accident while browsing Napster a few years
back. I've since bought 6 of their CD's (still available in Russia)
and intend to buy more! They recently regrouped and released
a new album. Their mid-70's material
sounds a lot like space disco meets progressive rock with Moog synths and Sennheiser
vocoders, turning more into synth-pop on their later works. By 1982 they
were using the latest technology - Linn LM-1 Drum Computers and
PPG Waves - on the excellent Atomic
album. I would have loved to have seen these guys
live back in the 70's. They were shaving their heads and wearing silver face paint
before the Blue Man Group were out of their diapers.

Stefan Bornhorst from Hamburg, Germany creates lush, moving synth-based electronic pop music using older analog synths, drum machines, vocoded vocals, old string synths and organs, and a Mellotron. He owns one of Kraftwerk's old Polymoog synths and uses it to great effect on many tracks on the excellent Poly album. This is currently one of my favorite synth-based groups in the world. You really need to check out his tracks on SoundCloud.

Eddie Bengtsson is the
synth pop genius that heads this excellent electro-pop band out of Sweden. For those who don't know,
Eddie was the songwriter behind Sweden's S.P.O.C.K. (as Captain
Eddie B. Kirk), the main vocalist and songwriter behind PAGE, and with Mats Wiberg formed the duo, Sista Mannen På Jorden (Last Man On Earth).
Some people have called him the Swedish Vince Clarke, which is a good comparison. Eddie has a knack for pop hooks backed by simple synthpop melodies. Although the vocals are entirely in Swedish, the music really shines through. Many of the
sounds are created using vintage analogue synths (Yamaha CS-15).
Eddie is also in another project called This Fish Needs a Bike (see entry below).

Yet another Eddie Bengtsson project, this one with English vocals. This Fish Needs A Bike
will be releasing a full-length CD this spring and also contributed an awesome rendition of Bubbleboy
for the Bubbleboy Remixed 12" that came out We Rock Like Crazy in Spring 2005.
Check out the MP3's at www.tfnab.tk.